Mechanism for dry meters and like apparatus.



G. HEELEY. M ,OF DRY METERS AND LIKE APPARATUS. APPLICATION FILED NOV. 26. 1913.

MECHANIS 1 ,223, Y5, Patented Apr. 24, 1917.

TTNTTEE STATEg PATENT @FFTQE.

GEORGE HEELEY, OF PARIS, FRANCE, ASSIGNOR TO CIE POUR LA FABRICATION DES COMPTEURS ET MATERIEL DUSINES A GAZ, OF

PARIS, rnenon.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 2%, 1917.

Application filed November 26, 1913. Serial No. 803,156.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE HEELEY, a citizen of the French Republic, residing at 27 Rue Claude Vellefaux, Paris, in the Re public of France, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in or Relating to Mechanisms of Dry Meters and like Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to devices for transmitting movement in connection with mech anisms employed in distributing systems such as used in certain meters or like apparatus, and more particularly in dry gas meters.

In all gas meters having membranes, called dry meters, the spaces in which the bellows move are separated from the medium in which the slide valves move, bya partition formed with the seats of the slide valves as well as with admission and exhaust orifices and with the corresponding conduits.

The said partition is formed moreover, with two orifices for the passage of the driving rods of the slide valves and of the registering mechanism, and in order to avoid the direct passage of gas through these orifices, it is necessary to employ a stufiing-box for each of the said rods. Whatever the kind of packing employed may be, it is known that stuffing-boxes which are not accessible I and left to themselves Without it being possible to retighten or to re-pack them, must necessarily lose their tightness and allow, sooner or later, a certain volume of gas to escape, this volume of gas passing thus directly from the admission of the meter to the exhaust without having acted on the bellows, and the measuring is thereby rendered incorrect.

It is known that a defect in the tightness of the inner stufiing-boxes constitutes a Weak point of dry meters, and certain constructors endeavor to avoid it by means of a leather cap which being bound on the exterior of the stufiing-box and on the rod traversing the latter constitutes an auxiliary packing, the function of which is to assist the stuffing-box should the latter be out of action. This means must be only regarded as a quite insufficient palliative owing to the difiiculty in obtaining fluid-tight ligatures.

of such a device could be relied upon, 1t

would be useless to add a stufing-box, and,

provided that the latter were eliminated, the cap could be bound directly on the walls of the meter.

The combination of a stufling-box with a covering cap does not therefore, give any more guarantee against leakage than one stufiing-box only.

A further disadvantage presented by stuffing boxes is that, owing to the tight grip which the packings exert on the rods, they cause a certain resistance to the movements of the rods and thus absorb an appreciable quantity of the pressure energy necessary to overcome this resistance.

Another disadvantage presented by dry meters, resides in the fact that in the arrangement itself of the driving members of the rods, which members owing to their multiplicity, their mode of action, the play resulting from the eiforts to which they are subjected, cause, at the end of a certain period of operation, variations in the distribution and consequently, modifications in the measuring capacities, and the indications of the apparatus are therefore falsified.

These two drawbacks: instability of adjustment of the distribution and lack in tightness of the stufling-boxes with or without covering cap, and the resistance opposed by their packings to the movement of the members, are completely avoided by the arrangement according to the present invention which is illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which:

Figure l is an elevation on a small scale, of a dry meter constructed according to the present invention, while Fig. 2 is a perspective view thereof, some of the parts and also parts of the casing thereof having been removed in order to show clearly the inner members constituting the novel features.

In carrying the invention into effect the transmission of the to and fro movement of each bellows 1 to the registering mechanism is elfected by means of a yoke 2 oscillating alternately from the front to the rear and from the rear to the front, about its horizontal branch 8 which at its ends is provided with small trunnions mounted in bearings 4L fixed to the wall 5 of the meter.

The yoke 2 imparts its alternating oscillatory movements in the opposite direction, to the rod 6, one end of which extends through the upper wall 7 of the apparatus through an opening formed in this partition and provided with a sleeve 25. This rod 6 actuates at the same time one of the slide valves 8 and the registering mecl anism. l

The mechanism provided for the transmission of movement of the two bellows 1 is disposed symmetrically, so that a second rod 9 passing through an opening formed in the partition 7 and provided with the sleeve 26 controls a slide valve 10, acting also on the registering mechanism through the medium of the common shaft 11 provided with a worm 12. The rotatory movement of the shaft 11 in a determined direction results from the combined action of the cranks 13, 14: and of the rods 15, 16 which connect the said cranks to the upper articulations of the rods 6 and 9.

The lower branch of the yoke 2 is connected to the bellows 1 by the lugs 18 which have elongated openings and are arranged at each end of the said yoke 2 and at right angles to the trunnions 19 of the guide 17. This yoke 2 thus serves, conjointly with the guide 17, to maintain the bellows, in such a manner that it must always remain parallel to the same plane.

It will be understood that in these circumstances, it is sutlicient to connect the small bar 20 or 21 of each slide valve to a suitable point selected on the driving rod 6 or 9 in order to obtain the desired displacement of the slide valve on its rod.

The movement of the bellows being thus transmitted to the slide valves without any other intermediate members than the rods 6 or 9, the distribution is not influenced, even aftera long period of operation, either by the play of the members in motion, or by their resiliency or by the efforts to which they are subjected.

These efforts the object of which is merely to displace the slide valves on their faces, are, moveover, almost m'l and are always exerted in the direction of the small bar of the slide valve.

Furthermore, it may be stated, that, owing to this direction, a reaction tending to raise the slide valves from their seats cannot take place even if there be deposits on the sliding surface which would cause a certain resistance opposing movement of the slide valves.

On the contrary, in other systems of dis tribution such a resistance frequently -pro duces a momentary lifting of the slide valves from their seats owing to the oblique thrusts taking place and the point of application of these thrusts.

The number of pulsations of the bellows and therefore the volume of gas supplied by the apparatus, are registered by a suitable mechanism to which the rotatory movement of the axis 11 is transmitted by the worm 12. This axis 11 effects a revolution each time the two bellows have performed a complete to and fro movement.

A method of adjusting consisting in varying the eccentricity of the cranks 13, 14 by means of the nuts 22, 23, permits of limiting as desired, the travel 01" the bellows, and consequently of obtaining a constant measuring capacity for all meters of the same caliber.

The rods 15 and 16 are arranged in such a manner that they can be readily lengthened or shortened when mounting the apparatus, so as to permit of adjusting the respective positions of the slide valves 8, 10 on their faces in order that the admission of gas into the bellows and the exhaust should take place in the most favorable condition for a good operation of the meter.

()ne of the essential features of the invention resides in the fact that upon each driving rod 6 or 9 of the slide valve and of the registering mechanism, and at the center of oscillation, that is to say at the point where the rod traverses the partition between the slide valves and the bellows, a membrane 24: of leather or any other fluidtight and pliable material, is secured, both to the rod 6 or 9 and to the partition 7 The peripheral edge of this membrane 2t bears on a flange formed within the ring 27 integral with the corresponding sleeve 25 or 26; this ring 27 is formed with a screw-thread and receives another screw threaded ring 28 screwing against the peripheral edge of the membrane 24.

The rocking shaft 3 of each stirrup or yoke member is provided (at the point where it is connected to the part or leg of the said member which corresponds to the rod 6 or 9) with a cross member 29 having bent arms, passing underneath the sealing flexible membrane 24, enabling the axis of oscillation of the said shaft 3 to pass through the central plane of this membrane. From this arrangement it follows that there is not any discontinuity in the partition 7 because the metallic part out out for the passage of the rod is replaced by a fluid-tight membrane without an orifice or any other opening through which a certain volume of gas could escape. It is evident that in view of the small amplitude of oscillation of each rod, the membrane 24., in order to follow the movements of this rod, has only to bend slightly, without opposing any appreciable resistance to the oscillatory movements of the latter.

It will also be observed that the membrane of each rod is not subjected to any fatigue or loss of elasticity, that it does not absorb practically any energy and that it remains as homogeneous and'fluidtight as the membranes of the same nature which constitute the bellows and to which it is quite comparable from the point of view.

of flexibility and the pressure exerted on its two faces.

This combination of the driving rods of the slide valves with the membrane replacing the stuffing-boxes, although it has been devised in particular with a view to its adaptation to gas meters having membranes, may also serve for other purposes where it is necessary to transmit a mechanical movement from one medium to another, through a partition which must remain ab solutely fluid-tight.

The construction may be appropriate to the other forms of meters or other devices.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. In a dry meter the combination of a measuring member and distributing devices including slide valves with a motion transmitting device for connecting said measuring member with said distributing devices, comprising rocking yoke members transmitting the movement of the measuring member to the slide valves, a partition separating the measuring member from the distributing devices, said partition being provided with openings, a rod extending each yoke above its axis of oscillation, each rod passing through one of the said openings, sleeves provided on said openings for the passage of the said rods, a flexible sealing membrane disposed within each sleeve and traversed by the corresponding rod, fluid tight connections between said membranes and the respective rods extending therethrough and to the inner wall of said sleeves, a shaft connected at right angles to said rods to enable the latter to oscillate, a cross member having bent arms formed with said shaft to enable the axis of oscillation of same to pass diametrically through the plane of said sealing membranes, bushes provided on the inner wall of the meter for supporting the ends of said shaft, and means for connecting the ends of the yoke members with the measuring member and with the distributing devices.

2. In a dry meter the combination with bellows and distributing devices including slide valves of a motion transmitting device for connecting said bellows with said distributing devices, comprising rocking yoke members pivotally connected to said bellows, a partition separating the bellows from the said slide valves, said partition being provided with openings, a rod extending each yoke member above its axis of oscillation and passing through one of the said openings, sleeves provided in said openings, a flexible membrane provided in each sleeve and closing each opening, the said membranes being centrally traversed by the aforesaid rods, fluid tight means for securing the membranes to the respective rods, a flanged ring secured within each sleeve for receiving the peripheral edge of the flexible membrane, a screw-threaded ring screwing into the former ring for tightening the said membrane at its periphery, a shaft connected at right angles to each rocking rod and supported on either side thereof so that the axis of this shaft passes diametrically through the plane of the flexible membrane, a cross-member having bent arms formed on the shaft so as to connect the latter with the rocking rod underneath the flexible membrane, trunnions formed at the ends of said shaft enabling the same to rock, bushes arranged on the inner wall of the meter for support ing said trunnions and means for connecting the ends of each of said rods with the bellows and with the corresponding distributing slide valves.

3. In a dry meter the combination with bellows and distributing devices including slide valves of a motion transmitting device for connecting said bellows with said distributing devices, comprising rocking yoke members pivotally connected to the bellows, a partition separating the bellows from and adapted to support the said slide valves, said partition being provided with openings, a rod extending each yoke member above its axis of oscillation and passing through one of said openings, sleeves provided in said openings, a flexible sealing membrane provided in each sleeve for the closure of each opening, the said membrane being centrally traversed by the rocking rod, fluid-tight means for securing the membranes to the respective rods, a flanged ring fixed within each sleeve for receiving the peripheral edge of the flexible membrane, a screw-threaded ring screwing into the aforesaid ring for tightening said membrane at its periphery, a shaft connected at right angles to each rocking rod and supported on either side thereof so that the axis of this shaft passes diametrically through the central plane of the flexible membrane, a cross-member having bent arms formed on said shaft for connecting same with the rocking rod underneath the flexible membrane, trunnions formed at the In testimony whereof I afliX my signa- 10 ture in presence of two Witnesses.

GEORGE I-IEELEY.

ends of the said shaft enabling the same to rock, bushes provided on the inner Wall of the meter for supporting said trunnions, small bars arranged at the opposite ends of each rod for controlling the distributing slide valves, and a common shaft connected to each rod and adapted to be driven thereby to operate the registering mechanism of the meter.

Witnesses:

HANSON O. Come, GEORGES BONNEUIL.

Gopies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 0. r i 

